


Citius, Altius, Fortius

by stupidity_nav



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: AU, Diving, Gen, Gymnastics, M/M, Olympics, Table tennis
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-03
Updated: 2016-09-20
Packaged: 2018-08-12 20:14:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7947532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stupidity_nav/pseuds/stupidity_nav
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A couple of Check Please! olympics(ish) AU's.</p><p>- zimbits, gymnastics<br/>- shitty/lardo, table tennis<br/>- ransom and holster, diving</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. gymnastics - Zimbits

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Zimbits olympic AU](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/226423) by tiptoe39. 



> Just a little something inspired by tiptoe39's cute [zimbits gymnastics drabble](http://tiptoe39.tumblr.com/post/148660163042/dinosaurswearingdior-said-zimbits-perhaps-jack).
> 
> Male gymnasts don't use music/choreography in their floor routines while women do. The routine in the video Ransom shows Jack is just something that Bitty put together for fun. 
> 
> Now with [art](http://tiptoe39.tumblr.com/post/149908927701/abdos-art-stupiditynav-and-tiptoe39-i-think)! thanks to abdos-art.  
> Come find me on tumblr at [stupiditynav](http://stupiditynav.tumblr.com).

Jack knows who Eric Bittle is. They’ve been introduced a few times at meets and gymnastics is a small world.

Bittle’s good, still improving, just starting to make event finals with regularity, but with lots of potential. He’s also, in Jack’s opinion, overly cheerful, silly, and willing to chat with his teammates, coaches, other competitors, event staff, photographers, spectators, and anyone else who might be around.

He also eats pie, that he bakes himself. Jack knows this because he’s overheard him offering pie to other competitors. Clearly Bittle does not take gymnastics seriously. This annoys Jack who takes almost everything seriously, esp. gymnastics. 

Looking back Jack can pinpoint the exact moment that annoyance started to shift into something else. 

He probably would never have seen the video if it hadn’t been for Ransom. 

Jack thinks that Ransom spends too much time on the internet and too much time with his college teammate Adam “call me Holster” Birkholtz, but he scores well so Jack bites his tongue – most of the time. 

Bittle beams out from Ransom’s laptop screen, wearing a tank with flawless scrawled across the chest and the tiniest pair of shorts Jack has ever seen.  
He’s gotten a haircut since they last met and Jack feels his mouth go dry. 

Bittle’s got nice legs, nice everything if Jack is honest. 

A pop song starts up and Bittle does his first tumbling pass. He floats above the floor, seemingly defying gravity as he flips and twists. Then he launches into an energetic choreography sequence as a female voice Jack feels he should know sings about how she’s “looking so crazy in love”. 

He had always been relieved that male gymnasts didn’t set their floor routines to music like the women did, but the look on Bittle’s face as he swings his hips to the beat has Jack seriously reconsidering.


	2. table tennis - Shitty/Lardo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mixed pairs table tennis is currently competed at the international level, but not at the Olympics. 
> 
> Paddle pong is like beer pong but with paddles. 
> 
> Find me on tumblr at [stupiditynav](http://stupiditynav.tumblr.com).

_We sat down with Larissa Duan and B. Knight as part of our continuing series on the athletes representing team USA in the events making their Olympic debut this year. The pair will be taking part in the mixed doubles table tennis competition later this week._

**Q:** I’ve heard that both of you got rather unusual starts in the sport so tell us a little about that.

**Knight:** I picked up table tennis in high school because I thought it was the sport most likely to piss off my dad. It was a surprise to me as much as anyone else when I turned out to be good.

**Duan:** I met ****** [Knight] in college. We had a class together and I thought he was a pretty cool bro, but we didn’t really get together until I bumped into him at a party.

**Knight:** She was *******dominating at paddle pong, like just ******* killing it man. I was looking for a partner at the time because I really don’t like playing singles, so I asked her if she wanted to give it a go.

**Duan:** I couldn’t tell if he was serious. Like here’s this guy from my film class [redacted], asking me if I want to play competitive table tennis. 

**Knight:** But she texted me the next day, and here we are.

**Q:** What’s the story with your jackets? They don’t actually have your names on them right?

**Duan:** No they’re nicknames we picked up in college that just kind of stuck.

**Knight:** When we were filling out all the gear forms, which you have to fill out a **** load of forms to go to the Olympics, anyway, I realized that you could choose the name on your jacket, and I was like, we gotta ******* do that.

**Q:** You didn’t get your first choice though.

**Knight:** [laughing] I wanted ****** but they said no so I changed it to Shiddy. The guys at Team USA really don’t like it but technically it doesn’t break any rules.

**Q:** How did you end up with a nickname like ****** in the first place?

**Knight:** It’s actually not that interesting of a story, but unfortunately I am not allowed to tell you.

**Duan:** He’s really not, like legally speaking he can’t.

_The rest of this interview was unfortunately deemed unsuitable for print and we were unable to edit it in such a way that it both met standards and made sense._

_You can see Larissa Duan and B. Knight in the first round of table tennis mixed doubles which kicks off this Thursday._

_They can also be found on twitter @thesickestflowbro and @larto, where you can join the frequent discussions over the status of their relationship._


	3. diving - Ransom and Holster

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check Please! is the wonderful creation of Ngozi. 
> 
> This was inspired by [this](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/stupiditynav/queue) picture. 
> 
> Find me on tumblr at [stupiditynav](http://stupiditynav.tumblr.com).

**N:** If you’re just joining us I’m Nicholas here with Jean-Claude and we are currently in round six of the men’s 3m-springboard final. 

**JC:** of the big stories tonight of course has been Justin Oluransi of Canada and Adam Birkiholtz of the USA. They were both considered medal favorites coming in and have certainly been performing like it. The fun part of all this is that while they are competing against each other here, they are actually more used to doing so as a team. 

**N:** That’s right Jean-Claude. They both attend Samwell University in Massachusetts where they compete the 3m synchro together They’ve been dominant in NCAA competition for the past couple of years. Apparently they are quite good friends as well as teammates. They train together, they live together, and they have been neck and neck together here tonight. 

**JC:** With Chad having a pretty rough final dive it looks like it will be between Oluransi and Birkholtz for gold, assuming nothing catastrophic happens. 

**N:** is up now diving second to last. He was the leader coming out of the round 5 but he needs a really good dive here because Birkholtz was only about 3.5 points behind him and they will be competing the same dive, which means that it will all be down to their execution scores. 

**JC:** oh and that was pretty good. Very solid in the air and hardly any splash. 

**N:** I have to say, he really could not have executed that much better. 

**JC:** it’s a 97.5 for Oluransi . that puts him on top of the leader board in gold medal position for now, and guarantees him a silver medal, with one diver left, his friend and sometimes teammate Adam Birkholtz. Birkholtz needs something higher than a 101 to take the lead. He is going to need to have the dive of his life 

**N:** -and he may have done it! Birkholtz has just finished off the competition with a spectacular showing.

 **JC:** was a beautiful dive, he really ripped the entry.  
That might just be the dive of the night. 

**N:** I have to agree with you there Jean-Claude  
The question now is will it be enough? 

**JC:** certainly did everything he could.

 **N:** You can feel the tension in the room as we wait for the judges to submit their marks and decide who will be taking home a gold medal. The college teammates turned Olympic competitors are standing side by side as they endure what has to be an excruciating period of uncertainty

 **JC:** The scores are in and – I don’t believe this, they’re tied.  
Adam Birkholtz has scored a 101 to tie Justin Oluransi for the gold medal!

 **N:** I don’t think they can believe it either. Oluransi has just jumped into Birkholtz’s arms as they celebrate their joint victory and that is a photo that you will be seeing tomorrow. 

**JC:** A gold medal is a gold medal but most of these athletes would probably like to win free and clear, I don’t think that these guys mind that much. 

**N:** No I don’t think they do. 

**JC:** A couple of days ago Birkholtz was asked about his Olympic experience so far, and he said it was great but the one complaint he had was that he wouldn’t have the chance to share a medal with his friend and teammate Oluransi. Now he can.


End file.
